New app allows bus riders to track HRT in real time

Austin Bogues

Getting updates on when that bus is coming might get easier as a volunteer organization has launched a new app that tracks Hampton Roads Transit service.

Code for Hampton Roads, a non-profit, locally based group announced the new program HRTB.us for smartphones and computers that allows users to track all of HRT's bus routes in real time. Users can get up-to-the-minute updates on where the bus is located and whether it's on schedule for its next stop.

"It's a terrific effort, and we support any effort to make the traveling public have a better experience on the bus. If that means eliminating the mystery on where a particular bus is at any point in time, we appreciate that," said Tom Holden, a spokesman for HRT.

While program developers worked with HRT to develop the app, the agency didn't incur any costs nor did taxpayers. "We didn't spend any money on it at all," said Kevin Curry, Program Director for Codes for Hampton Roads. "After we worked with Hampton Roads Transit to publish the data, I organized and hosted an event where I invited developers from around the region to do things and develop the data," Curry said. He admitted the event, held in March of 2012, was laborious. "There were moments where people didn't sleep," Curry said.

The group continued to meet over the next year to gradually add to the project. Curry said part of the organization's goal is to assist in areas where cities and other government groups can't find the funding or manpower to accomplish projects for the public good.

"HRTB.us is a perfect example of the benefits of putting public data in the hands of the public. And now we have an app that's going to benefit every user of transit in Hampton Roads. That's cool by any definition," said Philip Shucet, President at The Philip A. Shucet Company and former President and CEO at HRT. Shucet kicked in the sole line item in the group's budget, $1,000 for pizza and drinks.

"We know that organizations like HRT have a lot of a data that's useful in this way, but they seldom have the IT resources and the budget to outsource it," Curry said.

"Volunteers can take the ball pretty far along the way. We want to demonstrate to people it's a way of us innovating, taking Hampton Roads into the future even though there are scarce resources.

Curry's estimate of HRT financing a project of this caliber with the manpower and professional developers would easily cost "in the hundreds of thousands."